My Passion for Georgraphy and Earth Science -- A Summary for the International Earth Science Olympiad

2022年09月18日 Guestbook

After the winning medals in IESO (International Earth Science Olympiad), I was interviewed by the Committee of Chinese Earth Science Olympiad, in which I was pleased to share my own experience participating in the Olympiad, as well as my passion for Geography and Earth Science. The following shown is my draft for the interviwew questions.

1. WHAT IT IS LIKE TO PARTICIPATING IN IESO?#

(Impressive experiences and feelings during the competition)

As Mr. Nir Orion said at the opening ceremony – “Enjoy the Journey” – this experience of participating in the International Earth Science Olympiad is undoubtedly an unforgettable journey.

During this journey, we were fully immersed in the experience brought by the DMT (Data Mining Test). From the biodiversity of the Panarea Islands to the eruption of Mount St. Helens, from the formation of the Himalayas Mountain to the shuttle of the Hack8558 asteroid in the background galaxy, we talk to the mountains, rivers, stars and oceans, exploring the mechanism of the operation of the earth and the universe, paying attention to the future fate of the world’s living beings.

And I will never forget that in the presentation of NTFI (National Team Field Investigation) at three o’clock in the morning in Beijing time, we depicted the billion-year-history of layer formations in the Huyu Scenic Spot, redrew the possible appearance of the paleochannel here, explored the impact of potential geological disasters on human society; gracefully and confidently demonstrated our practical skills and critical thinking to the world, and finally won two gold medals for our country, China.

During this journey, I was also deeply touched by the cooperation between my domestic and international teammates. When preparing for ELSI (Earth Learning Students’ Ideas) and A&S (Art and Science), my national team teammates and I enjoyed the rush of inspiration, presenting science and passion with art and creativity. ESP (Earth System Project), on the other hand, is the resonance of the soul across latitude and longitude. The moment we turned on the camera and smiled at each other, my fear of cultural differences and communication barriers faded — the passion and worship of nature provide us with countless common topics, and it was at that time that I realize: science, should belong to the whole world.
In addition, I was immersed in the tension and excitement of competing in the Olympiad. It was the sodium-rich oblique feldspar that appeared repeatedly in the dream, the sunrise witnessed several times in Nanjing and Beijing, the sense of release and accomplishment when overcoming the difficulties, and the heart that beat wildly at the award ceremony……

The results of two gold, one silver and one bronze are undoubtedly the best gifts that this journey has given me. And I deeply understand that the touching and moving behind these four medals comes from being able to study together with like-minded friends, being able to enjoy the logical thinking and insight of earth scientists, as well as being able to use my own words to interpret the vast land and the starry sky……

2. INTEREST AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN EARTH SCIENCES

(When did you start learning earth science? Why did you become interested in it? What efforts have you made in the process of learning earth sciences, and what kind of gains have you got?)

Looking back, my passion for earth science is cultivated subtly and unconsciously. Every time immersed in the illustrations in the encyclopedia, every time standing in front of the fossil specimens in the museum, every time stopping to admire the changes of clouds outside the window, every time be unwilling to part to farewell the natural scenery I encountered on the journey… As a child living in a big city, I was eager to get close to nature. I am touched by the vast expanse of the wilderness, and look forward to encountering the mountains, rivers, stars and oceans, listening to their stories with respect and awe.

And the Earth Science Olympiad is an excellent platform for me to understand the world with a scientific view through learning and exploration. This year is the first time our school has participated in the Chinese Earth Science Olympiad (CESO), hence there are few mentoring and resources provided. So on the basis of the physical geography of the Chinese College Entrance Examination Curriculum, I studied some university courses on my own according to the exam content and syllabus, organized notes and mindmaps to build knowledge framework, and independently sorted out the typical question collections in the Olympiad to consolidate my understanding. Meanwhile, to study the Earth Science Olympiad is not only to read books and do past paper problems, but also to view, think and experience. I remember going to the museum with my classmates to identify fossils and prehistoric animals, and listening to my friends who studied the Biology Olympiad explain the history of biological evolution; I remember that whenever the temperature suddenly changes, we always argued about the current weather system, identifying and discussing the direction of the wind and types of cloud; I also remember that on many nights preparing for the competition alone, I watched the moon outside the window, and unconsciously start to calculate the azimuth and identify the moon phase…… As more knowledge learned, I became more and more attracted to the wonders of earth science, as well as prouder to be able to explain the splendid natural phenomena in my own words.

In the process of studying and preparing for the competition, I gradually gained a multidimensional understanding of science, including its experimental methods and research methods, such as experimental instruments commonly used in planetary science, chaotic systems of meteorology, modeling and inversion of geophysics, and so on. In addition, I also realized that science is not just a theory in black and white in books, but has a dynamic development process. Take the theory of plate tectonics for example, I have taken it as an axiom since childhood, but never thought that it had actually encountered many setbacks when it challenged the Geosyncline theory decades ago; it was constantly repaired and improved by breakthroughs in continental geology, marine geology, geophysics, etc., and is still developing today. At the same time, during the field investigation in the international competition, I also gained a new understanding of the research methodology of earth science scholars, handled the use of geographic information tools to some extent, and also gradually built up my own earth science logic, and learned to understand the dynamic change of and interaction between the earth systems, so as to analyze real-life earth science problems with a more comprehensive view.

Of course, I am also immersed in the pleasure of knowledge learning itself. Among all the disciplines, the ones that struck and moved me the most were planetary science and astronomy. I remember that when I visited the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Researcher Yang Wei once said to us, “The future of earth science is planetary science.” Since their birth, human beings have begun to think and explore the universe. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars. Whether it is to continue to explore the mechanism of the workings of the universe, or explore possible resources, or find a new home, this is a step that we will definitely take in the near future. And when you understand the thousands of matters in the universe, and then look back at the earth, you will harvest a different kind of touch. In a corner of the Spiral Arm of the Milky Way, cosmic matter evolved into life, and possessed consciousness. They were cast by the stars, and now they look up at the starry sky; Full of enthusiasm and passion of the universe, they began a long way home.

3. EXPECTATIONS AND PLANS FOR MAJOR AND CAREER

(Your plans for the university majors you most want to apply for, the direction you want to learn in depth, future scientific research planning or career planning)

I will apply for geography as my undergraduate major choice and I am looking forward to engaging in geographical scientific research in the future. As a space science, it not only focuses on the operation mechanism of various earth systems and their interrelations, but also seeks to find out the dilemma faced by mankind in this fast-changing world; It not only provides a foothold for the principles of natural science research, but also provides comprehensive and dynamic perspectives and schemes for evaluating and solving social problems. From these all-encompassing contents, find the problem, abstract logic, analysis and provide constructive suggestions – for me, there are both vertical thinking, lateral extension, and field exploration, which let me feel no longer to be a filled and trained professional learner, but a solution provider for real-world problems. In the future, I am eager to continually expand my knowledge of natural and social science, so as to explore the relationship between humans and the environment, and finally commit myself to solving the problems faced by mankind today, such as climate change, energy security, environmental pollution and so on. I am also willing to learn and master geographic information tools, handle and analyze complicated spacial information with big data technologies, as well as visualize and clarify my conclusions.

Actually, I’m not quite sure what specific job I’m going to take in the future: researcher, scientific populizer, writer, decision maker…… the job I preferred most now is scientific researcher, but no matter what the case is, the undeniable thing is that I will always be reverent and curious about nature, and will never forget my responsibility of guarding the earth and mankind. As Mr. Carl Sagan, whom I admire most, said in his book Cosmos, “We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins…… Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.”

4. ADVICE FOR FUTURE IESO CONTESTANTS

(Provide some advice and encouragement for future contestants)

The essence of the competition is to examine the knowledge boundaries of the contestants, so constantly expanding your academic knowledge is the most basic task when preparing for the competition. And as for earth science, the discipline that is not included in our compulsory curriculum (in China there are only 9 courses taught in secondary schools, namely Chinese, Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Politics, History, and Geography), it is particularly important to build our own knowledge framework and system. Expanding knowledge boundary is not simply equal to memorizing and recitation, but also requires understanding the relationship between key knowledge points or different sub-subjects, so as to have a systematic understanding of the entire earth science discipline and achieve a comprehensive and thorough learning effect.

What goes hand in hand with building expanding knowledge boundaries is a sufficient and appropriate amount of practice, as the practice is always the best way to consolidate understanding. The domestic and international Olympiad past papers are definitely great sources of questions. You can first go through them and then confirm your answer by looking up the textbook or other learning materials. Meanwhile, if there are students around you who are also preparing for the Earth Science Olympiad, you may as well discuss the problems with them together. Trust me, you will not only learn a lot from each other, but also built up an unforgettable and solid friendship.

Finally, for an Olympiad competitor, even if he has gained enough knowledge, he still needs a strong psychological diathesis to reach eventual success. Therefore, in this challenging journey, whatever difficulties you encounter, please just maintain the sobriety and rationality of earth scientists, bravely face challenges, keep thinking and exploring.

I wish you satisfying Olympiad results; and also wish you to enjoy the tempering and steeling brought by this Olympiad experience, and go further with your passion and faith in earth science in the future!

Climate Change:Tropical Cyclones, ENSO and the Spheres

2022年09月03日 Guestbook

The ESP (Earth Systems Project) is also an event held during IESO2022, which requests international groups of students to investigate one of the four topics on Earth System Phenomena and make presentation to the International Jury. The topic I selected was Climate Change’s Effects on Natural Hazards (one of the four topics provided by the committee) and then I was assigined to a group where students also chose this topic. My teammates were from Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Australia and UAE, and we chose to work on climate change’s impact on tropical cyclones specifically.

Myself Ziyan Fang and team 18 group members will be presenting our Earth science project. For our Earth systems project, we investigated how tropical storms are connected to phenomena such as climate change and the El Niño Southern Oscillation. We also looked at how this affects Earth’s systems.
Our topic was to investigate the impacts of climate change on natural hazards. For something to be a natural hazard, it has to be a natural event with potential negative impacts on society. A very large number of phenomena fit these criteria, and are not just limited to earthquakes, tropical cyclones, volcanic eruptions, sandstorms, floods and drought, but each one has complex connections to Earth’s systems and to climate change. For this reason, we decided to focus just on one topic for our project and hope to cover it more in depth. We chose to investigate the natural hazard of tropical storms, which are known as tropical cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons depending on where they originate.

Information about Climate Change

To understand how climate change would influence tropical cyclones, we first need to get some basic information about climate change. Our climate system is controlled by plenty of mechanisms, including plate position, Milankovitch cycle, thermohaline circulation, solar activity, volcanic activity, greenhouse effect, ect., among which the first five are mainly long-term or mid-term mechanisms, whilst the final one, greenhouse effect, is the one dominating the change of climate in the recent one hundred years. It refers to the effect that some gas molecules containing two or more atoms of different elements would have net change in the distribution of their electrical charges when they vibrate, and hence can absorb and emit the infrared radiation and subsequently warm the earth’s surface.

From the chart on the left we could see that the gases that contribute most to the greenhouse effect and climate change re CO2, CH4 and NO2, whose concentration ratios have largely increased since the industrial revolution.
In fact, the current climate change is also supported by evidence from all aspects. According to IPCC AR5, our earth is undergoing a series of phenomena including increased surface temperature, fastened water circulation, melting glaciers, decreased seawater PH, and so on, which disturbs our original climate patterns and alters the intensity and distribution of natural disasters, of which tropical cyclones would be a typical one that is closely associated with human society. So, specifically, how will climate change affect tropical cyclones and lead to further impacts on different spheres in the earth system? To answer this question, we must first get some information about tropical cyclones.

Information about Tropical Cyclone

A tropical cyclone is a cloud-rotating storm and a warm low pressure system. Tropical cyclones rotate due to the Coriolis force in the ocean where the temperature of the ocean water is at least 27°C. Tropical cyclones form in warm regions a short distance from the equator.
Let me explain how tropical cyclones form. First, the seawater is heated, and the water evaporates to form water vapour. In the tropics, where temperatures are higher, the atmosphere can contain more water vapour. Next, the evaporated water vapour collects and rises in a spinning motion. After that, it is cooled by the cold upper air and clouds form. As the rising air currents send more and more water vapour into the air, the clouds become warmer and warmer to form cumulonimbus clouds. At this time, a large amount of vapour becomes water, which releases a large amount of latent heat. This heat warms the air around it, making the updraft stronger and the atmospheric pressure lower. This repetition produces tropical cyclones.

Climate change’s impact on tropical cyclone
Frequency: There is evidence that the frequency of tropical cyclones has decreased since industrialisation. There has been a 13% decrease in tropical cyclone frequency between the 1850-1900 period and the 1900-2012 period (Thompson, 2022). The graphs on the slide demonstrate a negative trend for the frequency. A possible reason for this is that climate change can weaken the circulation of Hadley and Walker cells. This is hypothesised to produce less favourable conditions for the formation of tropical cyclones, reducing the number of tropical cyclones that have formed. Another potential reason is the increase in maximum humidity of air due to temperature rise. To form a cyclone near saturation from the surface to a height of 5–7 km is a necessary condition for tropical cyclone development. And due to the increase in absolute humidity it is harder to reach the near saturation level within the specific height and we are seeing a decreasing trend in the numbers of cyclones forming.

Intensity: It is much more agreed that climate change increases the intensity of tropical storms. This may be because an increased temperature leads to increased evaporation and thus more warm air rising and more moisture. When the tropical cyclone has more moisture it can intensify its impact through increased precipitation. The plots project a lower frequency of tropical cyclones in all regions, but an increased intensity and rain rate in all regions. This projection is for an increase in global temperature of 2 degrees celsius.

Location: As global temperatures increase, the temperatures required to form tropical cyclones move closer to the poles. Therefore, the latitude of maximum intensity is getting closer to the poles. Between 1982 and 2009, the average location of Northern hemisphere tropical storms has moved north by 53km, and Southern hemisphere tropical storms have moved south by 60km. Moreover, the change in vertical wind shear change is causing rapid intensification at some regions.

Tropical cyclones’ effect to El nino

As you know, the ENSO, El Niño-Southern Oscillation is the interaction of hydrosphere and atmosphere in the southern pacific ocean. El Niño and La Niña are the warm and cool phases of a recurring climate pattern across the tropical Pacific. The pattern shifts back and forth irregularly every two to seven years, and each phase triggers predictable disruptions of temperature, precipitation. These changes hugely interact with the earth systems’ tendency.

How can the tropical cyclones modulate ENSO? There are two main effects intensify the El nino.

These are the schematic diagrams of the modulation of running 3-month mean SST intensity for the Niño 3.4 region by tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific.
The light blue circle, Walker circulation is weakened by the direct effect of asymmetrically anomalous westerlies within light blue thick arrows related with TCs at lower tropospheric levels and by the indirect effect of the Hadley-like circulation (red circle) over the tropical western Pacific. Moreover, red dashed curve shows TCs can shallow the thermocline in the tropical western Pacific (pink curve indicates the thermocline without TCs and blue solid line the climatological thermocline). Enhanced eastward-propagating equatorial Kelvin waves (red wavy arrow, pink wavy arrow indicates the Kelvin wave without TCs carries warm water eastward, further deepening the thermocline in the tropical eastern Pacific, thereby reducing the gradient of the zonal thermocline in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

In the picture, you can see the zonal eastern wind in the southern pacific ocean enhancement during the main duration of the cyclone. Changes of ENSO due to tropical cyclones could induce Unprecedented abnormal weather.

Interactions of spheres in a tropical cyclone

So, let’s talk about tropical cyclone affect our atmosphere.

A tropical cyclone is like a giant, atmospheric heat engine. The moisture from the warm ocean acts as its fuel, generating huge amounts of energy as clouds form.
The rotating thunderstorms form spiral rainbands around the eye of the cyclone where the strongest winds and heaviest rain are found, known as the eye wall, transporting heat 15 km or higher into the atmosphere. The drier cooler air at the top of the atmosphere becomes the exhaust gas of the heat engine.

This picture shows increasing wind speed and precipitation around a tropical cyclone. This data is from hurricane Katrina that occurred in August 2005. As you can see, the increased precipitation followed the track of the cyclone. And you can see also, there is increasing wind speed around the cyclone. So, what is the effect?

Strong winds in tropical cyclones lead to large waves on the sea called storm surges. So, What is a storm surge actually? Storm surge is an abnormal rise in sea level above the normal tide levels, and can be thought of as the change in the water level due to the presence of a storm. The height of the storm surge varies depending on how strong the cyclone is. The faster the wind speed, the higher the storm surge that is generated. We got the Katrina TC’s wind speed is SS5, which can generate storm surge up to 24 feet.

When storm surges move to the coast, they erode the Earth’s crust and sediments. This can change the topography of the coast. As you can see in this picture, the coastline pushes further into the land. Plus, Climate change causes sea level rise, making storm surges reach even higher in relation to land, making storm surge even more destructive. If the tc enters even farther to land (Hurricane Maria), it causes many massive landslides as you can see in the picture.

Tropical cyclones damage biological organisms, especially near the coast. Storm surges can cause flooding for a few days. Populations of organisms that can’t defend themselves and adapt through this change will be decreased. This causes secondary succession, where organisms that can adapt to tropical cyclone conditions become more abundant. This phenomenon changes the ecology of the area.

Tropical cyclones and storm surges also cause many human fatalities, especially near the coast. We took data of fatalities caused by the dangerous tropical cyclone bhola. The human fatalities are 300k-500k. Imagine, with this climate change causing the increased intensity of tropical cyclones, how many more lives will fall if we don’t prevent climate change.

Conclusion

Tropical cyclones are a natural hazard with the ability to cause widespread damage. The growing phenomenon of climate change amplifies these devastating effects by increasing their intensity, but not their frequency. This has follow-on consequences for all of earth’s systems, showing that Earth’s spheres are all connected. Tropical cyclones cause and are driven by atmospheric phenomena such as wind and cloud and storm formation. They interact with the hydrosphere because they are formed from the evaporation from water bodies, and cause precipitation. Tropical storms and their storm surges interact with the geosphere by eroding sediments from the coastline, possibly causing landslides. They also interact with the biosphere by damaging organism populations, including human populations, and can alter the ecology of an area. The Earth is an interconnected system, and this investigation of tropical storms has found links to climate change and all four of Earth’s systems. Thank you.

My Earth System Pledge about Climatology

2022年09月03日 Guestbook

The “Earth System Pledge” is one of the projects held during the International Earth Science Olympiad, which requests students to write a short production explaining how they would like to use their knowledge and skills in the future. The article posted below is my pledge. There is a limit for words to be written, hence I choose to express and describe my interest in a specific subject, Climatology.

I’ve always been fascinated by the complexity and sophistication of our climate system. It has constantly undergone changes during the geological history – there were ice ages, high temperatures, and millions of years of heavy rain. This leads some to conclude that, today’s “slight” temperature rise is not likely to impose considerable influences on humans. However, global warming is more than just a simple increase in temperature. Its effects are felt across all Earth systems: rising sea levels flood coastal areas; Disrupted weather systems bring more frequent extreme days; Species are forced to adapt to changing living conditions, and some are even threatened with extinction……

Under the background of climate change, can we, fragile human beings, successfully adapt to the great change in the ecological system we live by? That’s the question I pledge to answer in the future. To this end, I will learn to reconstruct the historical climate change model using evidence such as ice cores and foraminifer; I will use computer tools to analyze its potential impacts and future trends; I will assess and practice existing mitigation strategies including carbon neutrality and pollution reduction, while also dedicate in designing other mitigation measures; Last but not least, I will focus on the social context behind climate change, striving to ensure the interests of more stakeholders.

With the allegiance to this planet, I pledge to work with thousands of earth scientists together, to study its history, focus on its present, and eventually, create its future.

Ziyan Fang, China

Winning Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal in the International Earth Science Olympiad Representing China!!!

2022年09月01日 Guestbook

The 15th IESO (International Earth Science Olympiad) was hosted by Aosta, Italy, from August 25 to 31. More than 200 contestants from 41 countries and regions took part in it, enjoying the seven events held during the olympiad. After national open round, final round and training camp selection, I was honored to become a national team member and participate in the national competition representing China with other 7 teammates. In the 4 competitions which there are gold, silver, and bronze medals to be awarded, I was glad to win gold medal in NTFI (National Team Field Investigation) , gold medal in ELSI (Earth Learning Students’ Ideas)(also called “excellent” in this program), silver medal in DMT (Data Mining Test) and bronze medal in ESP (Earth System Project) . My total medal count ranks first in Team China. The following is my award certificates, whilst the detailed introduction of and my production for each event will be presented in the following articles.

My Linguistics Society and Genetic Engineering Society (1):Activities and Achivements

2022年06月30日 Guestbook

In Year 11 I successfully run two academic societies in our school, namely the Linguistics Society and the Genetic Engineering Society. I am greatly fascinated by the study of these topics, and am willing to build a platform for students who have the same interest in them. After a year’s contribution, the societies were glad to win press attention from our schoolmates, as well as be highly praised by a variety of agencies: Genetic Engineering Society has won the title of “Star Society” in my school, whilst several school teams organised by it all won Gold Awards when participating in iGEM (International Genetically Engineering Machine). The Linguistics Society was recognized as the “Gold Society” by ITCCC, the committee of IOLC (International Olympiad Linguistics China), and I myself was also recognized as the “Gold Campus Ambassador”; meanwhile, many of our society members won national prizes and medals in the olympiad, some of which even successfully entered the national training camp (national top 30).

I am pleased to reach my original intent of running societies, as well as had my own abilities improved. In the following article, I would like to introduce the activities held by my societies in detail, whilst my feelings and gains of abilities are going to be shared in the next post.

The emblem of the Linguistics Society

The emblem of the Genetic Engineering Society

Background #

Being in charge of the Vice President of the Genetic Engineering Society last year, I was determined to undertake the responsibility of its president when the former president decided to leave off her post, in order to use the resources and experience that I gained from the past to offer opportunities for students interested in genetic engineering as well as biological science to communicate and research together.

The Linguistics Society was set up by my friend Yibo Zhao and me at the beginning of this school year, through which we aim to stimulate more students’ interest in language study and hence better continue the tradition of our ‘Foreign Language School’. Meanwhile, as the winner of the National Silver Award in the International Olympiad Linguistics China, I am greatly willing to help the great number of students in our school who are interested in this subject or this competition but have no idea how to start learning and preparing.

After a year’s hard work, it finally turns out that all the efforts we made are worthy and meaningful. In the following article, I would like to introduce in detail the activities we held through the societies as well as the achievements we were glad to gain.

Activities and Achievements

1. Linguistics Society

During this school year, a series of activities were held by the Linguistics society. For instance, we prepared introductory lectures to help society members get a brief understanding of linguistics. Meanwhile, Zhao Yibo was dedicated to expanding the members’ horizons through a wide range of creative ways, including posting a message of “daily linguistics knowledge” in the society’s QQ group every morning, or compiling a society handout that includes recommended booklist and other learning materials. Apart from learning and discussing academic knowledge, we also designed several interesting and funny activities to arouse students’ curiosity and passion for linguistics in an easy way. For example, we invited the Lumos Club (a club composed of Harry Potter fans) to together hold a meeting analysing the linguistic phenomenon of the magical spells in Harry Potter. From the perspective of etymology and morphology, we parsed dozens of typical spells, after which participants also learned and practiced their pronunciation as well as gesture together. At the same time, we prepared fantastic posters of translated spells and their gestures for each participant. Thankfully, the meeting was quite successful, attracting plenty of students and winning high praise from them.

![][1.0-1]

the introductory lecture

the link to the lecture: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gF411a7Rh?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=b8454367b4642c5facffcc6bd2bc69a7

![][1.1]

an example of the “daily linguistics knowledge” message

the content of the society handout

the recommended book list in our society handout

our joint activity with Lumos Club

Meanwhile, our society is also committed to helping members prepare for IOLC (International Olympiad Linguistics China) as well as other Linguistics Olympiads, and I was glad to be the person in charge of this program. My mentoring includes compiling a handout containing typical questions of different topics, such as phonetics, grammar and semantics. The sample questions were selected from the past papers of the national linguistics olympiads of different countries such as China, Russia, and the USA. I organized them in an order from simple to hard, making it easier for new learners to get started. Meanwhile, I dedicated a lot to writing clear answers and language rules to help students improve their linguistic logic (this part will be introduced in detail in the next article). Two months before the competition, I was mainly responsible for answering questions from the society members. Whenever they encountered problems, such as puzzles with no clue, or language rules that are different from their own answers, they could come to ask me and I was always willing to analyze with them together. What is worth mentioning is that, when I was answering questions, compared to letting students understand the answer to a particular question, I focused more on introducing the universal problem-solving methods and logic, such as morpheme comparison, “colour marking method”, “form method”, attention to the supplementary material, and so on, so as to help students improve their general skills of problem-solving.

Attracting the attention of ITCCC, the committee of International Olympiad Linguistics China, our linguistics society was glad to be offered five places of participants for APLO (Asian Pacific Linguistics Olympiad) representing China, while there are only 26 places offered to team China in total. To choose the best representatives, we held a school selection examination. The problems were set by Yibo and I. We also designed an answer sheet, then printed the papers out and bound them. (the content of the exam paper is shown below) During the examination, students are encouraged to write down their own language rules and we examiners assigned extra points to reasonable rules. In fact, when grading papers, I confirmed that the ‘language rules’ were truly a better indicator of a student’s logic and thinking ability compared to the ‘answers’ (because linguistic Olympiad questions are often so difficult that basically all students try to guess the answers for questions like matching and choice).

![][1.6]

our school selection election

With pleasure, we were praised by ITCCC as a “Gold Society” whilst I personally was glad to win the “Gold Campus Ambassador” prize. The committee issued a pennant to us (as it is shown below) and invited me to hold a national presentation to share my experience and suggestions to other organizers of societies in China (the script, slide, and link of the speech was posted in another GitHub article). Our performance in the Olympiad competition is not bad as well, as many of our society members won the “highly distinction” or “distinction” award in IOLC, and some of them even successfully entered the national training camp. Meanwhile, our on-campus selection and training for APLO (Asian Pacific Linguistics Olympiad) has also cultivated the only medalist in the international competition representing China — Xu Haoyang.

![][1.9]

the pennant of “Gold Society” by ITCCC

the poster of “Gold Campus Ambassador” by ITCCC

my presentation about society operation

2. Genetic Engineering Society

Genetic Engineering Society focuses on topics related to biological science, especially gene and genetic engineering. We held lectures and seminars during this school year, while we also organized a school team to take part in the iGEM competition (International Genetically Engineering Machine), which was pleased to win the global gold medal.

As a society operator, I was passionate about and committed to providing members with as many resources as I can, including platforms for academic discussion, opportunities to cooperate with other high schools and universities, channels for getting in touch with popular professors, chances for carrying out research and implementing experiments, and so on.
To be specific, I invited seniors — elder students who had mastered bioscience — to share their experiences and suggestions for studying biology as well as participating in the competition with newcomers, and built a QQ group so that they can keep in touch later on. Biological professors from Nanjing University were invited to deliver lectures as well, whom students were passionate to learn from and discuss with.

Apart from learning from speeches and lectures, our society members also dedicated a lot to conducting their own projects with the support provided by the society. Last year, after learning from a wide range of materials and discussing heatedly with teammates, our society members reached a consensus to carry out a project developing an efficient method to converge gutter oil (a kind of unhealthy oil frequently to be seen in Chinese restaurants, which is made from discarded cooking oil and kitchen waste) into high value-added polyunsaturated fatty acids like lino1`lenic acid. To reach the goal, they designed their own experimental apparatus and mathematical models using online software and conducted experiments in our school labor. After school, they also carried out a series of social work to ensure the usefulness and feasibility of their project. For instance, they gave out questionnaires on the Internet, collecting and accessing the public’s comments on the issue of gutter oil in China. They also interviewed officials from City Administration Bureau and Public Security Bureau in Nanjing, figuring out how the food regulatory institutions work and receiving suggestions on their programme from these experts. At the end of the day, they cooperated with students from other high schools and universities to improve the whole program and formed a team to participate in the IGEM competition (international genetically engineered machine) using their project of gutter oil converging. Eventually, they were glad to win an international gold medal.

website link of the team Worldshaper_Nanjing:
https://2021.igem.org/Team:Worldshaper-Nanjing

![][2.1]

Worldshaper_Nanjing and their gold medal

Currently, we’ve been focused on the next iGEM competition. Pleasantly, more and more students had been attracted by our society and finally the society members willing to participate in this year’s competition were enough to form as many as three school teams.

Apart from normal activities like those held last school year, this year I managed to get in touch with a biological company that is willing to share their research data freely with one of our school teams focusing on the microorganism dye, and they welcomed the team to collaborate with them on the research as well.

We also cooperate positively with teams from other high schools and universities. On World Environment Day (three days after which comes World Ocean Day), for example, we held an online inter-school seminar with Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Minjiang College, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and Northwestern Polytechnical University. I also invited other societies and clubs in my school including Brain Science Society, Marine Environment Protection Club and Insects Club to participate in the seminar. At this event, many famous professors from academia were invited to deliver presentations on related topics, including Professor Qin Yuan and President Lin Wenxiong of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Professor Tao Yi of Tsinghua University, Professor Wang Zonghua of Minjiang University, and so on. IGEM teams from participating schools also presented and discussed their research projects. The research topics chosen by each school team are distinct from each other, but were all interesting. For instance, the CHINA-FAFU team from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University focuses on the development of microalgal biofuels, while one of our school teams, Nanjing_NFLS, is expecting to degrade the secondary metabolites of cyanobacteria: algal toxins. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that our other school team which didn’t present in the seminar, NFLS_Nanjing, is composed of society members dedicated to the composition of biological dyes, which would be safer and more sustainable compared to chemical ones.

In addition to winning prizes in competitions, our club has also gained a lot of recognition in our school. For example, we won the “Star Club” award and were invited to publish our activities and feelings in the school magazine. Below is the article I wrote and editted.

![][2.3]

Our article in the school magazine

*After this year’s competition is over, I will also post the website links and awards of our school teams right below.

3. Summary

My two societies focus on distinct academic topics, but they have a lot in common. Apart from sharing ideas and studying knowledge, the two societies all choose to participate in national and international competitions to challenge and show themselves. Linguistics Society focuses on past paper practicing and training of problem-solving skills, whilst the Genetic Engineering Society encourages members to conduct their own scientific research, using the knowledge they gained to cope with the challenges existing in our real life. Both societies achieved great results in the competition, and more importantly, students gained a lot of knowledge and ability from the society activities, which is undoubtedly the best answer to the efforts of us society operators.

PHYSICAL GEOLOGY and OUR EARTH -- A comparasion of two online college courses that I took

2022年02月21日 Guestbook

COURSE 1: Our Earth: Its Climate, Process and History provided by the University of Manchester on Coursera

COURSE 2: Physical Geology provided by Nanjing University on MOOC

My Certificate

Lecture Structure

Our Earth:

WEEK1: Building Blocks of Earth’s Climate System
WEEK2: Formation, evolution, and process of the solid Earth
WEEK3: Water in Earth’s Climate System: Oceans, Atmosphere, and Cryosphere
WEEK4: Life, and its Effect on Earth’s Climate System
WEEK5: Build Your Own Earth and Conclusion

Physical Geology:

Course Format

Our Earth: The course is mainly taught by Prof. David M. Schultz, Professor of Synoptic Meteorology. In the vedio, he often teaches alone with his slide, while occasionally he also invites other relevant faculty members (such as geochemistry professors, or laboratory researchers) to introduce more specific content through their conversation.

Physical Geology: This course is a video of Professor Shu Liangshu’s class giving to the students at NTU.

Assessment

Our Earth:

Multiple Choices (Single Answer & Multiple Answer)
A self-designed model: This is not compulsory, but students can build models on their own under the instruction of videos.

Physical Geology:

Multiple Choices (Single Answer)
True-or-false Questions: Judgment on some important key points which are easy to confuse students
Discussions: Often related to key points taught in course, occasionally are open questions.

Other Resources

Our Earth: Provide an activity called BYOE (build your own earth), which is a vision that they have to engage students in understanding the controls on Earth’s climate. Their vision is for us students to selecting the features we want: distance from the Sun, tilt of the axis, location of continents, oceans and mountains, rotation rate, atmospheric composition, etc. We would enter these characteristics on a web page, push the “Go” button, and a climate model would run in the background and produce the climate on that world for us. However, such a vision is not currently possible with the speed of today’s computers. Hence instead, they preselected about 50 Earths, did the computer simulations already, and prepared plots of the simulation results for students to examine.

http://www.buildyourownearth.com/

Physical Geology: The whole set of courses mainly revolves around Professor Shu Liangshu’s “Physical Geology”, which is also the most commonly used compulsory textbook for all geological major students in China. At the same time, Professor Shu also provided his courseware, summary of knowledge points, and some exercises for students’ self-study.

My Feedback

In “Our Earth”, Professor David M. Schultz introduce plenty of basic knowledge of earth science to students in a simple and clear way. This was my first try of university courses as well as my first time studing earth sciences in English, and undoubtly the course successfully deepens my interest in this subject. The teaching environment of this course is lovely and friendly. The professor gives a variety of vivid examples to help us understand the abstruse knowledge. He also tries to create a lively teaching and studying atmosphere through his conversation with other professors or showing us around the school laboratory in the video, etc. After taking this course, I re-understood how the Earth works and its characteristics in a systematic way. Meanwhile, I also realized that the university curriculum will provide children with more space for independent inquiry than the high school ones, as the teacher will not provide a large number of questions for exam or practice. In addition, I was fascinated by the final model designing. Even though it’s not compulsory, I still find this model very meaningful as it allows me to understand in a more intuitive way how different propertys affect a planet’s climate patterns.

In contrast, the “Physical Geology” course is more traditional. Professor Shu introduced us a great amount of basic principles of earth sciences (especially geology), which is relatively in-depth and professional. What attracted me most was that, after introducing almost every key point, Mr. Shu would show a large number of pictures related - which were all taken by himself during his field trip of travelling. Through this, I realized that the knowledge we learned in textbooks can be applied to explain a variety of phenomena in real life, and perhaps this is also one important meaning of studying geology and geography. I also look forward to the day when I will be able to apply principles and theories to my daily life, and explain the world with the theories I have learned.

HOW CAN SHENYANG BID FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

2021年12月28日 Guestbook

HOW CAN SHENYANG BID FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

– a city case study in foreign teacher’s class

We have a weekly lesson with a foreign teacher who will share some of the local culture and helps us to improve our English and thinking.

This year our foreign teacher, JBrown, asks us to do a final assignment which was a 5-minite group presentation. In this presentation we will be representing a Chinese city applying for the right to host the Olympic Games in 2036. The content was free to play with, but of course, the most important thing was to present the merits of the city. After the presentation, our teacher will choose the city that he judges to be “successful in its bid” and will give the group an A* – the highest score in the class.

The city was not chosen freely by us students. JBrown had prepared some pieces of paper with the names of big cities in China for us to draw - and we needed to be on behalf of the city we had drawn. Many students were satisfied that they had drawn political and economic centres or global mega-cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing. Unfortunately, the city we drew was Shenyang - a very invisible provincial capital city facing all the problems that come with post-industrialisation. All of our friends persuaded my teammates and I to ask JBrown for re-drawing (we had one chance to re-choose, while all the other students in the class who had drawn Shenyang had all re-drawn other cities). However, we did not use this opportunity. After discussion, we decided that the Olympics did not have to be held in the most economically developed cities, and that each city had its own unique advantages. What we needed to do was to explore the city’s characteristics in depth and give it meaning to host the Olympics.

It is also because our city does not have the same economic advantages as the others, so instead of simply describing its economic development as a showcase of the city’s strengths, as other students did, we chose to take a holistic approach (e.g. geography, cultural support, venue arrangements, what legacy the Olympics will leave for the city, etc.). We searched a lot of information and images when researching the advantages of Shenyang’s location, and referred to the statements and plans of many cities that had successfully bid for the Olympics in the past when writing the programme and the significance of the event. Finally, we consolidated all the ideas and constantly revised our language presentation to try to make our presentation more organised and logical. Our slides, part of our presentation, will be attached to the text. In the end, our city came out on top and ‘successfully bid for the Olympics’, winning first place in the class.

The other students complimented our group afterwards, saying, “They were so good that in their hands, even Shenyang could successfully bid for the Olympics.” We were really happy, not only because we got an A*, but also because we did our best to complete the case study despite not drawing the most favourable city, and eventually ended up with a surprising result. In the process, my teammates and I also learned how to work together, how to analyse the problem, how to find the perspective of the case study and how to find reference sources.

Shenyang’s bidding for the Olympic Games

produced by Anna, Mckenna, Sherry, Fiona

The Olympic Games is an event of great importance, and it’s our pleasure to compete for the opportunity to host the Games in 2036 here as the representatives of Shenyang. We are going to introduce our city’s strengths from various aspects.

socio-economic advantages

As the largest central city in northeast China, Shenyang can no doubt provide sufficient financial support for the game.

Also, riching in natural resources, Shenyang is one of the most important industrial centres in China. Its recently flourished high-tech industries is also greatly helpful to provide technical support for the construction of Olympic venues and the arrangement of sporting events.

Furthermore, Shenyang is a transportation hub in China. Many important railway trunk lines pass through it, and the Liao River facilitates its water transport.

location

Apart from the socio-economic advantages, Shenyang’s location is very suitable as well. It has the temperate monsoon climate with average summer temperatures of less than 30 degrees. At the same time, there won’t be frequent rainy days. This comfortable weather can allow athletes to perform at their best.

What’s more, situated in the Northeast Plain, Shenyang has a flat and wide-open terrain, which makes it possible to provide concentrated venues.

Support

Sustainability

Legacy

We promise that all of these infrastructures will continue to fulfill their missions after the Olympic Games —- that is to boost the economy and sports industry in Shenyang. We hope that Shenyang can be known to the world not only for its industrial development, but also for its dynamic image of a “sports city” through the 2036 Olympic Games. We promise that all stadiums will be open to the public after the Games, providing more space and facilities for citizens to do exercise. The improved transportation network and airport will help to enhance the level of communication and collaboration between Shenyang and other cities in the world, converting Shenyang into a cosmopolitan city. Besides, the measure of adopting renewable energy will be stuck to and spread out. We have drawn up a detailed and gradual scheme for the application of renewable energy in transport, medicine, sports industry and many other fields, making Shenyang a green city. We believe that the combination of the Olympics and Shenyang will not only enhance the city’s image, but also breathes life into this historical sports event. As the capital city of Liaoning province, Shenyang will play a leading role in Northeast China to develop sports industry and spread Olympic culture in the process. Moreover, Shenyang will serve as a model for developing countries to raise their international status, encouraging more industrial cities to take part in sports events and broadening the value of the Olympics.

Shenyang has made full preparation for the 2036 Olympic Games, dedicated to holding them with credibility, support and sustainability. We believe that the encounter between the Olympics and Shenyang will burst out a brilliant spark, which will be unforgettable in the history of the Olympic Games and the history of globalization.

A visit to the Museum of Paleontology

2021年12月22日 Guestbook

Last week was Science and Technology Week of our school, during which the Biology and Geography teaching and researching group offered some of our students a chance to visit the Nanjing Museum of Palaeontology, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity. That weekend, our Chinese teacher assigned an informal essay, and I wrote the reflections on the visit and my thoughts on studying Geography. Later, that essay received a quite high mark - I realised from reading my Chinese teacher’s comments that her husband is a geography teacher, and she got touched by my enthusiasm. I never think I’m a good writer or a profound thinker, but I did want to translate and post this article here, as a way of recording of my little reflections as I am growing up.

A visit to the Museum of Paleontology

Fang Ziyan Class 7

Cold front crossing.

Stratocirrus.

The sunlight lovingly linger on the autumn day.

I.

In May of Grade 10, I finally decided that I wanted to apply for a Geography major in the future – I am always attracted by a variety of subjects, hence it was a little bit hard to make my final choice. However, the deeper I study about Geography, the more I felt I was suited to it, and then it became an overwhelming passion, affirming my determination. Within the past five months, I had read several books and accumulated a certain amount of knowledge. This museum visit organised by the our school’s geography and biology teaching and researching groups was a even good opportunity to practise.

I had memorised so many theories, but it wasn’t until I stood in front of a whole wall of fossils of different shapes and colours that I understood the meaning of the words in black and white. For example, I recognised the rounded spiral shape of ammonite, but I didn’t know that it had evolved from hornblende: the long, pointed shell of hornblende made it not easy for them to balance themselves, so the pointed shell eventually developed into a flat shell of ammonite. What’s more, I had of course remembered that the ammonite was the index fossil with a fast rate of evolution and a short existence time, but till asking the mesuem docents I learned its specific reason for not surviving the Cretaceous extinction is that the acidic seawater made the calcium brittle and caused it to become less resistant to pressure.

From being a little kid hanging out in museum galleries and illustrations in encyclopaedias, to choosing geography as future major and learning a certain amount of related knowledge, to now hanging out in museum galleries again with a few geoscience-loving kids with me and asking a series of questions to the docents – What I want to say is, your vision determines your choices, and your choices again determine your vision.

II.

Step ahead into the second year of high school, students around me began to get anxious. There is always endless homework and frequent exams. For those of us who are studying in ordinary Chinese high schools and want to apply for foreign universities, it is really challenging to not only follow the courses of gaokao (the college entrance examination of China) but also learn foreign high school courses on our own. In addition, although I am deeply passionate my major, geography, there are quite few people around me who apply for it, hence sometimes I would feel a little lonely.

However, interestingly, it’s not like what people always say – “You might find solace from something other than studying, e.g. travalling, playing video games, to ease your anxiety.”

Sometimes… the solace comes from your major itself. No matter how you grumble the boring life you might face in order to successfully apply for it, if you love it enough, it will embrance you back with its own little philosophies - as an antidote to your anxiety.

Walking around the museum, I gained new insights into many familiar knowledge. I came up with the five biological extinctions, which were always followed by an explosion of new creature. I came up with the Milankovitch Cycle and Wilson Cyclone – everything separate and emerge again and again. I came up with the red junipers on top of the mountains, sweeping the clouds from the fog and sleeping on the moon for thousands of years; the sands of the desert, with the sun rises and the moon sinks, only to be silent; the basalt cape, with the tide rises and falls, the waves open and close, only to stands still… Why worry that there are no companions? Why be anxious about the boring and tiring endless days?

III.

There are times when I want to ask myself, where do my passion for the subject of geography come from?

When I was a child, my grandfather was always loved to study the map of China, and every time I went out on public transport he would passionately teach me to recognize and remember the traffic routes. Kindergarten overs early every day, so he would always take me around Nanjing on his bicycle to various places of interest. I also remember that my favourite set of books as a child was the Encyclopaedia my mother bought me, which talked about the earth and the universe, with fabulous pictures of ancient creatures. Also, every summer and winter, I always had the opportunity to go back to my hometown in Anhui, to embrace the mountains and fields, to appreciate the fireworks under the stars, and to listen to the adults in the village chat happily about the minutiae of their lives: how the weather affected the harvest, how much money they made from selling vegetables, which mountain to climb tomorrow, and whose field was going to be used by the town for constructing buildings. Perhaps this is why I had more experience of enjoying the nature and living in the town than other city children. Also, another possible reason is that, my dad is a crazy travel lover. There’s no denying that the days spent travelling with him to Europe, the USA, Japan and Korea and many of the provinces in China have become a profound background of my life.

IV.

On the way back to school, sky is clear, clouds are light, trees are bright yellow. The wind blows, and the ginkgo leaves fell in a shallow warm sun.

The ginkgo is the seven-million-year-old ginkgo.

The sun is the eternal sun.

WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING? A speech in English class

2021年12月05日 Guestbook

I delievered a 20-minute speech in our English class this Thursday. Though it was a really long speech, my classmates listened very carefully. After the speech, my English teacher asked them several questions to check whether they have learned anything it. Surprisingly, many of my classmates could repeat the framework and even content of my speech, which made me both moved and pleased. Some of my friends wanted me to send my powerpoint slide to them online because they got pretty interested in this topic and hoped to do some further study.Though I don’t think my research is comprehensive enough for the limited preparation time, helping classmates broaden their horizons and arosing their interest in this important topic was truly a satisfactory thing for me. The following is my speech and PPT slide.

GLOBAL WARMING

Good afternoon everyone. The 2021 Nobel Prize in physics amazed phycis lovers all over the world. It is the first time that Nobel Prize in physics was given to meteorology. You can see here that two of this year’s prize winners are meteorologists, which means who study the whether system and climate system. The Nobel committee’s decision seems can prove that climate change has become one of the severe issues affecting human society.

Today I would like to introduce you the main cause of climate change——global warming. I’m going to explain how global warming is formed, what crises it will lead to, and our solutions to this issue.

1. Cause of global warming

First let’s see how global warming is formed. For 2.5 million years the Earth’s climate has fluctuated, cycling from ice ages to warmer periods, but in the last century the planets’ temperature has risen unusually fast. Scientists believe it’s human activity that’s driving the temperatures up, a process known as ‘global warming’.

Ever since the industrial revolution began, factories, power plants and eventually cars have burned fossil fuels such as oil and pull, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere.

These greenhouse gases trap heat near the earth through a naturally occurring process called the greenhouse effect, which means they trap some of the energy the earth radiates and reflect it back, warming the earth. Scientists now believe that the greenhouse effect is being intensified by the extra greenhouse gases that humans have released.

2. Crises caused by global warming

Some of you might ask, it’s normal for the temperature to have a slight change. We’ve experienced colder days and hotter days. A little bit of temperature rise seems won’t affect us that much.

However, that’s not the case. The speed of warming is unequal for different places on the earth, and among which the fastest ones are the polar areas. According to the polar amplification effect, if the earth’s temperature increase 2℃, then the temperature in polar areas will increase at least 10℃. You could see here the change of area covered by ice in north pole from 1975 to 2020.

As the ice melts, sea level rises, flooding coastal areas around the world. And we know that coastal areas are often important trade centers, for instance Shanghai and New York. What’s more, permafrost, which means frozen soil, will also melt and emit more carbon because there are methane(CH4) inside, which is another kind of greenhouse gases. Thirdly, as ice melts, the inhabitat for animals in polar areas is rapidly decreasing, and hence some species including the polar bear would face the danger of extinction.

We could see that all these three crises are caused by the rising temperature. However, does global warming only mean increasing temperature? Let’s see another example.

In February 2021, in the midst of rapidly warming global temperatures, an exceptionally severe cold wave hit large parts of North America, from Canada to Northern Mexico, leaving 10 million people without power. It was the coldest February In the U.S. in more than 30 years. Donald Trump posted a Twitter to complain about the cold wave and question the global warming. For example, he said:”windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!” He never believes in the existence of global warming, and he thinks ‘global warming’ and ‘extreme cold’ are totally unrelated things. However, that’s not the case.

In fact, it is the global warming that lead to this extreme cold. Actually, global warming will cause something called Unusual Planetary Wave Patterns, you can understand it as the distortion of climate system. And hence global warming will not only leads to extreme hot, it will also lead to extreme cold, extreme dry, extreme wet, etc. This theory is very complex and it’s hard to explain, but I will give you some examples to help you understand better.

We know that Brazil is in South America and there is a famous forest called Amazon rainforest. Rising temperatures resultes in less rainfall brought by the ocean currents, hence Brazil is getting drier and drier. Drought, high temperature, rainforest——what would happen? Forest fire. This is a picture of South America in 2019, the red point indicating there was a forestfire.

Circumstance in Australia is very similar. The four-month fire killed 3 billion animals and set Australia’s highest temperature on record for three days in a row.

Now let’s see the extreme cold in America. We mentioned that global warming can lead to disorders of the climate system, and among which one consequence is the spread of cold air over the Arctic. (This may be a little difficult to understand. You don’t need to understand why, it’s just a result.) What’s more, we know that there are mountains on the east and west sides of North America, and there is a plain in the middle, so the cold air from the Arctic does not spread on the west-east direction. As a result, cold air is concentrated in the center areas herr, leading to the extreme cold in the United States in February.

We’ve discussed about two kinds of crises that global warming may result in —— firstly, the rising temperature and its further consequences shows that global warming is part of climate change; secondly, global warming is also a cause of climate change as it leads to the distortion of climate system. Last but not least, I want to say that global warming is a cause of further global warming as well. As ice melts, rocks are exposed, which is easier to absorb heat. Permafrost melts, emitting methane(CH4), which is another greenhouse gas. AS global wildfire season extends, there are less trees and hence less carbon will be absorbed…… And all of these consequences will again intensify the global warming.

3. How to deal with global warming?

Finally, let us discuss how to deal with global warming and climate change. I don’t know whether you’ve ever followed the climate conferences, but at least for me, sometimes the climate conference is not like a meeting, it’s more of a quarreling. Every country has its own opinions. Last year, the United States even formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement. As global warming is such a severe issue, why it is so hard for countries to reach a consensus on solving it?

Nowadays an important way to deal with global warming is to limit carbon emissions. Carbon emission permits are given to each country according to their national circumstances. If the country doesn’t run use up all of their carbon permits, they can sell them to other countries; on the contrary, if a country’s carbon emission permit is not enough to use, then it has to buy from others.

In fact, developing countries, for example China and India, are currently the countries which emit the most carbon because of industrial production. On the other hand, developed countries have entered the post-industrial era with less carbon emissions, as they don’t need such large scale of industrial production and they have also developed some green technologies. For the developing countries, limiting carbon emissions actually means limiting development. But the developed countries won’t be restricted in this way. They can even sell permits unused to other countries and hence gain profit.

Thirdly, some island nations and a few coastal countries in Africa have a different idea: they are extreme environmentalists. They don’t have the need for industrial production, right? Some of them are in still in primary society or mainly depends on agricultural development. Hence they are also not afraid for the carbon emission limitation. However, these countries are close to the ocean and can easily be flooded once sea levels rise, so they are not satisfied with the current temperature target set by the United Nation(2℃) and are always requiring for a stricker target, 1.5℃ for example.

4. Summary

To summarize today’s speech, we have learned that it is human activity that caused global warming, and there are several crises that it may lead to. Firstly, global warming will directly result in rising temperature, which is part of climate change. Secondly, global warming is also a cause of climate change as it leads to the distortion of climate system. Lastly, global warming is a cause of further global warming as well. However, each country has its own idea on how to deal with this severe issue. Though fighting with global warming might be an arduous journey, I am still confident that us human-being have the wisdom and the ablility to save ourselves. That’s all of my speech, thank you for your patient listening.